'WandaVision' Trailer Breakdown: Who Is Doing This To You, Wanda?
The new WandaVision trailer released last night gave us our best look yet at the trippy Marvel Studios series coming to Disney+ in January. Clearly something is not right in the world of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), especially since her late lover Vision (Paul Bettany) is back from the dead. But that might be the least of Wanda's concerns as it appears some kind of outside force is influencing her life. Let's see what we can glean from the new footage in our full trailer breakdown.
The new WandaVision trailer begins in a classic 4:3 television aspect ratio and in black and white, emulating sitcoms from decades ago. Kathryn Hahn questions what a single gal like Wanda Maximoff is doing in such a big house.
But it turns out Wanda isn't single, or at least she thinks that she's not. She manifests two wedding bands for Vision and herself. It would seem that the evolution of the sitcom and its story will be manufactured by Wanda Maximoff, but it's not without elements that allow her to question this reality that she's created for herself. How is this possible?
I love the use of classic TV special effects to make the floating towel and glass look as cheesy as the magic effects on shows like Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie. It frames Wanda in this happy housewife role, but with the added weirdness of her having telekinetic abilities and her husband being an android, even though he doesn't always appear that way.
WandaVision plays with the tropes of sitcoms a bit by having Wanda and Vision in separate beds, something that was standard in TV shows depicting married couples in the early days of entertainment. But here she brings together the beds with a little bit of magic.
However, this happy sitcom life that Wanda has created for herself doesn't seem to be completely safe. We see the black and white world warp with color and TV scan lines and static, indicating that this certainly isn't the real world.
An incredible shot inside a glorious 1970s home finds Wanda doing housework by using her abilities to control the vacuum cleaner while she lounges about with a fashion magazine. I wonder if every episode finds Wanda resetting the sitcom she's in, starting off as a happy couple with Vision and slowly breaking down as the mental construct begins to crumble around her.
This is just your average establishing shot, but I thought it was interesting that it cut out just before we were really able to see who was coming out of the house. Is it just Wanda and Vision chasing after their dog, or is it somebody else?
Here's a teasing shot of at least one of the children that we'll see in Wanda and Vision's family. Above the crib is a mobile of butterflies, but they suddenly come to life and flutter away. Is that something Wanda is doing, or are these babies already exhibiting powers of their own? We've broached the subject of who these babies are before in the previous WandaVision trailer breakdown.
Elizabeth Olsen has such an odd smile in this scene where Vision is touching her pregnant belly. That's it! Moving on.
This shot is rather intriguing. Kathryn Hahn's character is called Agnes, but many have predicted that she might be Agatha Harkness, a witch villain who has come to blows with Wanda in Marvel Comics. It's interesting to me that they have her riding a bike through the neighborhood, perhaps as a nod to the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.
Here's one of the few shots we get of a human version of Vision in full retro wardrobe as he says hello to a couple of his neighbors. I wonder how it's determined when Vision appears as human and not. Perhaps he manufactures this appearance in front of other people only. Then again, maybe it's something that gradually breaks down like the rest of this world.
There's a new neighbor we haven't seen before next to Agnes, and his name is Herb. Is he an outside party caught up in this manufactured sitcom world? Or could he have a more pivotal role like Kathryn Hahn's character?
One character we know will be important is Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Parris. This is the adult version of Maria Rambeau's young daughter who we met in Captain Marvel and will have a key supporting role in Captain Marvel 2. We saw her get thrown out of Wanda's sitcom construct in the previous trailer, indicating that maybe she's maybe not supposed to be there.
Monica's presence gets all the more interesting here as she snaps out of her chummy sitcom character role when she realizes that she's not sure why she's there. We thought maybe she was working with the team of agents who gather around the neighborhood Wanda has seemingly created for herself, but now we're not sure. In fact, we're not sure if the neighborhood is entirely created by Wanda or if she's manipulating a neighborhood that's already there.
I love the build-up of the ominous tone of the series as the mental construct around Wanda begins to fall apart. Here the dining room set phases in and out like television static and scan lines. We've also seen a transition to 16:9 shots instead of the old 4:3 aspect ratio.
Things start to look a little more modern with these wider shots, and we see Vision in a Halloween costume styled after his classic comic book appearance. Things are supposed to be weird on Halloween. Something is off.
There's this shot of a woman decorating for Halloween, and Vision notices a single tear rolling down her cheek. Maybe she's trapped there. But trapped by who?
In one of the few black and white shots seen in the widescreen aspect ratio, Wanda focuses on this radio as a voice can be heard through static saying, "Wanda, can you hear me? Who is doing this to you?" That would seem to indicate that maybe this construct hasn't been created by Wanda, but maybe it's an outside party trying to keep her powers in check.
It just so happens that ominous voice from the radio appears over a shot of this shadowy character, who appears to be dressed as a beekeeper. In the shot just before this, it looks like he's wearing a medical mask under the facial net, but in this one, you can't make out the darkened facial features. Who is this character?
Another mysterious figure appears in the kind of TV distortion we've seen throughout the trailer, perhaps a forcefield that surrounds wherever Wanda finds herself. Who is watching that mysterious figure?
Though we've assumed Kathryn Hahn is perhaps a villain in WandaVision, these two shots would seem to indicate that she might be trapped here like everyone else and is being manipulated to be part of this mental projection. Agnes says, "Are you here to help us?" as we cut from a worried look to a playful laugh.
A caravan of military vehicles are arriving on some rural land. Is this on the way to the neighborhood where Wanda is living? Are they trying to keep Wanda from losing control of her powers?
We get the first serious interaction between Wanda and Vision, no longer in the construct of sitcoms. Wanda says, "This is our home," and Vision says, "Then let's fight for it." This is one of the sequences that I'm most curious about. Did Wanda and Vision establish a home together before they were off the grid in Avengers: Infinity War? If this is all some kind of trick and how is this their home? Is this all inside her mind?
Wanda takes off in flight with her hands glowing with the energy she has wielded against enemies in various Marvel Studios movies we've seen before.
Randall Park is running alongside some soldiers, reprising his role as Jimmy Woo, who appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp to oversee Scott Lang while he was on house arrest. Is he involved with whoever may be doing this to Wanda?
This doesn't look good. There's a massive force field as Wanda starts noticing the manufactured world around her. Is this Wanda keeping people out? Or is this where Wanda's contained environment begins? Perhaps the agents and soldiers have arrived when they pick up on some kind of energy source in the middle of nowhere and this is what they find.
Hey, there's Kat Dennings as Darcy from the Thor franchise! But she looks pretty damn terrified, possibly looking up at the surge of the force field in the shot above.
The Mind Stone? This was both destroyed by Thanos and then sent back in time after the Avengers retrieved it in their time heist in Avengers: Endgame. Is there a chance that Wanda's powers are strong enough that maybe she can manifest another Mind Stone? After all, she's one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. WandaVision will show her strength to its full potential, and maybe she's able to bring Vision back to life.
Whatever is happening with the Mind Stone, there's a burst of energy that comes from it that blows Wanda back. This is easily the most intriguing part of the trailer, and it will undoubtedly be something that has a big impact on the future of the MCU.
In a dramatic, climactic shot, Wanda and Vision stand in their living room looking out the window, a shimmer of distortion outside indicating that Wanda may not have much time left with her husband.
But Marvel wants to get one more moment of levity in there by flashing back to the sitcom world, this time in widescreen. The sitcom side of this show is what makes this stand out from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I can't wait to not only see how this plays out for Wanda and Vision, but what it means for the rest of the next phase of Marvel Studios stories.
WandaVision starts streaming on Disney+ on January 15, 2021.